Columbia party-crashers attack with pistols, baseball bat

Strangers who were denied entry to New Year's Eve parties in Columbia shot two men and a youth and beat a man with a baseball bat in two separate incidents, Howard County police say.

In the first incident, which began about 9:45 p.m., several strangers tried to crash a party at a house in the 5800 block of Stevens Forest Road and argued with residents when they were denied entry, police say.

Suddenly one of the strangers pulled a handgun and shot James Ricardo Douglas, 19, and Harold Lemar Starkes, 19, police say. The assailant and his companions fled.

Douglas was listed today in serious but stable condition at the Shock-Trauma Unit in Baltimore.

Starkes was listed in stable condition at Howard County General Hospital.

In the second incident, which occurred about 12:30 a.m. yesterday, three men who earlier had been refused entry to a party in the 6600 block of Shady Grove Road returned and forcibly entered the house, police say.

One of the intruders was armed with a .22-caliber handgun and another with a baseball bat, police say. The third was unarmed.

Several people attending the party were assaulted, including Reginald Walters, 15, who was shot in the lower back, and Sherman Brooks, 22, who was beaten on the head with the bat, police say.

Brooks, of Columbia, was listed in fair and stable condition at Shock-Trauma, a hospital spokeswoman said. Walters, of the 6400 block of Woodgreen Circle in the Deerfield section of Baltimore County, was listed in serious and stable condition at Shock-Trauma.

Police arrested and charged three men with assault with intent to murder and breaking and entering in the Shady Grove Road incident.

They are Damon Lamont Brooks, 20, of the 6300 block of Scarlet Petal in Columbia; Darren Anthony Smith, 24, of Laurel; and Darrell Eugene Matthews, 18, of Severn.

They were being held without bail at the Howard County Detention Center.

Police say they have recovered a .22-caliber handgun and a baseball bat they think were used in the attack.